Thursday in Slidell

~By Ann Canedy

Everyone you meet here has a story to tell. Last night most of the St. Mary’s group went to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. Some of us had on T-shirts that identified us as Habitat workers. As one of our team left the rest room, a woman who introduced herself as Gerry, approached her. “I just want to tell y’all thank you”, she said. We ended up spending part of the evening with Gerry and her husband-new friends.

Every morning our group and other volunteers meet at the local Habitat office. This morning there were two people passing through in their RV, a group from an investment company in New York, and a large contingent from Centerville, Ohio. The latter group represents their town, which pays for their travel expenses. They have formed a partnership with a local school called Our Lady of Lourdes and they are regular volunteers in the Gulf. Our volunteer coordinator Lindsay asked the group if they wanted to share their experiences. At first no one came forward. Then Judy Scarafile told the story of meeting Gerry. Other people from other groups began sharing their stories of the Gerrys they had met. Lindsay said, that if it were not for volunteers like us from outside, the 75 houses Habitat has built would not have been possible. There is just not enough local support.

Not that Habitat is not appreciated by the local population –it really is. People are just unable to give the many hours of work that rebuilding requires, because they are rebuilding their own lives. On the jobsite today we met Jessica Talamo, a young married woman with three small children originally from Chalmette. Habitat requires that in addition to a financial commitment, the potential homeowner has to put in 50 hours of “sweat equity”. Jessica earned hers today. She picked up a paintbrush and she joined me, Andie, Jane, Linda and Bruce in painting the shed. The shed was finally finished with a prime coat. We dubbed it “the petite chateau d’amour” (love shack!) and laughingly took a group photo in front of it. We exchange email addresses with Jessica and promised to send her kids Red Sox shirts.

We all worked extremely hard today –the men (and Jeannie) put up the roof and finished off the porch. The women hammered metal strips along the perimeter of the house as fortification against wind, readied the kitchen for the cabinet installation, and sprayed the floors. Our Lincoln Street house is becoming a home.

After eight hours on the job in heat and humidity and dealing with delightful creatures called fire ants (they bite!), we went to Our Lady of Lourdes to put in a couple more hours of volunteering. The church steeple had collapsed into the church building and both the school and chapel were condemned. The gymnasium still stands and houses all the supplies that have been donated. It is incredible to see cinder block walls cracked and gaping, large holes in the floors where the foundation was so undermined by the flood waters that parts of the interior collapsed from underneath and the I beam was torked. The school was completely gutted.

The facility manager told us a story about her secretary whose house was flooded. Her family retreated to the attic. Realizing that they could not get out through the attic to the roof, they had to swim under water to their front door and out into the street. Relatives in powerboats found them clinging to the sides of the house while the wind blew at 150 mph.

Symbolizing what I have found to be the spirit of Slidell, the church remained open throughout the storm and continued giving mass, even though the church was under 7 feet of water for days. The church operated initially with one round plastic table and a cell phone. Now children dressed in uniform pour out of the trailers at the end of a school day and there is a banner across the first trailer announcing “2008 Cheerleading Champions ”

Tomorrow we work a half-day at our jobsite and travel into New Orleans. We will pack and deliver 100 bags of groceries for the displaced who still live under the I-10. There are still too many houses to build.